After yesterday’s 7-1 debacle of a loss against the Yankees and Max Fried, the Astros found themselves at somewhat of a cultural crossroads. Cultural in that the entire makeup of the clubhouse has come into question, specifically as it relates to the reverberations caused by the Framber Valdez and César Salazar incident last night. I won’t be diving into the specifics here, you can go and research for yourself. Point being, tonight was essentially a “put up or shut up” kind of night for the Astros.
Could they pick themselves up off the mat and respond with a flurry after a haymaker to the chin? Or would Orbit have to grab a merch towel from the pro shop and throw it into the ring? Tonight, Will Warren(8-6, 4.28 ERA, 153 SO) and Jason Alexander(4-1, 4.68 ERA, 52 SO) square off to help determine a series tie or series L for the home team.
First Pitch: 7:10 CDT
Top of the 2nd Inning:
Giancarlo Stanton blasted a ball to the train tracks to make it 1-0 Yankees.
Top of the 4th:
Austin Wells hit a 2-run homer, this time an opposite field wall-scraper special, extending the Yankee lead to 3-0. (scoring Ben Rice)
Note: Jason Alexander’s night was done after the 5th inning.
His final line: 6H, 2BB, 6 K’s, 2 HR, 3 ER.
Bottom of the 5th:
Ramón Urías scored Yainer Diaz from 3rd base with his 10th sac fly of the year to put the Astros on the board 3-1. (He’s now tied for the league lead in that category)
Top of the 6th:
Ryan McMahon returned the favor with a sac fly of his own, scoring Ben Rice to make it 4-1 Yankees. This was actually their 1st score all series that didn’t come from the long ball.
Bottom of the 6th:
Jeremy Peña and Yordan Alvarez both put the team on their collective backs with an XBH each. The first was a bomb by Jeremy to the Crawford Boxes to make it 4-2, then Yordan followed it up with a double. Jose Altuve then made the game tighter at 4-3 when he scored Yordan on an RBI-groundout.
Bottom of the 7th:
Caratini led off with a single and was then replaced by Jacob Melton for running purposes. Good. Because after a walk by Peña to advance Melton into scoring position, Yordan then tied the game 4-4 with an RBI-single to left field.
Bottom of the 8th:
Something amazing happened. After a Correa double to lead off the inning, the Astros drew not one… not two… but THREE walks! In order, it was Jesús Sánchez, Christian Walker, and finally Taylor Trammell. Trammell’s walk actually gave the Astros the lead 5-4.
After two ejections involving Yankees Pitcher Devin Williams and Manager Aaron Boone, Peña then extended the lead to 6-4 after a bases-loaded single to right field. So, that makes multiple walks and bases loaded hitting. What world is this? (Because the Astros are statistically one of the worst offenses with bases loaded in MLB. Didn’t matter tonight, though.)
More random baseball things happened when the Astros scored their next two runs. This time, via a bases loaded balk to make it 7-4. Then, a high bouncing wild pitch made it 8-4.
Wow, a blowout against the Yankees. Time to put this one on cruise control right?
Top of the 9th:
You’d be wrong if you believed my last line of text. Because Cody Bellinger nearly tied the game with a 3-run homer off Brian Abreu to right field to make it 8-7. This was the Yankees third homer of the game.
Thankfully, Abreu managed to strikeout Jazz Chisholm to secure the game and tie the series 1-1. Bryan King gets the W on the night.
This win snapped an 8 game losing streak against the Yankees in Houston. Their record has improved to 77-63 and their AL West lead is now 4.0 games after the Rays finished their breakfast and swept the Mariners in a three game series.
Tomorrow, the Astros get Carlos Rodón(15-7, 3.18 ERA, 177 SO) in the rubber match to close out the series against the Yankees. Standing as his opposite will be Christian Javier(1-1, 3.38 ERA, 16 SO), who is coming off 6 innings and no hits in his last outing against the Angels.
